Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin

Saturday, Apr. 4, 2026--San Antonio

Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Scheblin is a collection of unsettling short stories emphasizing strange events happening in personal lives.   To a certain extent they reminded me of those in the old Twilight Zone TV series.  There's a bit of quirkiness to them a bit of uncertainness about what is really happening or has happened.  Although well written, they probably wouldn't appeal to everyone.  It helps that it is a short book; I think I would have become frustrated and tired of them if there had more more stories.  But this was just the right length to allow me to recognize the quality of the writing and the uniqueness of the stories without becomimg exhausted or frustrated.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Good People by Patmeena Sabit

Wednesday, Apr. 1, 2026--San Antonio

Good People by Patmeena Sabit is a very well written novel.  It's also a frustrating novel to read because it deals with so many societal problems--envy, pressure to conform, attempts to take advantage, different expectations for males and females, mob histeria, lack of acceptance of non-conforming people within religions and between religions, ignorance and prejudice, etc.  The book is the story of a muslim family that has immigrated from Afghanistan to the Greater DC area.  Immediately, problems show up within the expatriate Afghan community there.  They see the father as lower class and feel they are therefore better than the new family.  They think the father is a fool for not following the route they have all taken by first becoming taxi drivers.  But over time, the father builds an international company and becomes the wealthiest of the Afghans in the area which they consider to be unfair since they are from a higher class.  One believes he is owed better chances in life because he is only 3 generations removed from a high ranking leader in Afghanistan, so he tries to weasel his way into the business as a partner.  Then the eldest daughter rebels against the Afghan restrictions for underage and unmarried girls by beginning a secret relationship with an Indian boy.  Those who have been envious of the family within Afghan community are delighted to watch the downfall of their reputation because of the dishonor the daughter is bringing upon it.  Then when the daughter dies, questions are raised of whether it could have been an honor killing.  Suddenly, the envy and excitement expands beyond the Afghan community to include special interest groups and politicians trying to take advantage by promoting outrage against the family.  Social media posts and newspaper articles go overboard in further firing up the rage against the family.  People drive for hundreds of miles to protest in front of the family's home.  In my opinion, it is a story representing changes in American society that have been slowly building for past 40-50 years--reaching the current state of MAGA opinionated rage.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Middle Spoon by Alejandro Varela

Sunday, Mar. 28, 2026--San Antonio

Middle Spoon by Alejandro Varela is a book that was rated highly last year and the author will be here at the San Antonio Book Festival next month.  It was available for immediate checkout on Libby.  I had just finished a book and I had 3 more on hold with one coming within days and the other two within a couple of weeks, so I decided to read this one during the wait time.  I almost quit it during the first few pages, though.  I got the sense of an author trying harder to impress me with his vocabulary than to get me into the story.  I stayed with it because the story started being interesting while the sprinkling of "impressive" words decreased greatly.  The protagonist is a member of a family of 4--the younger of two married gay men and their two children.  The men have been together for about 20 years in a committed, but open relationship.  The book takes place after the younger man has developed a side relationship with a man 8 years younger than he is.  The relationship has lasted for 3 quarters of a year, but has its problems.  The married man has fallen in love with the younger boyfriend, but it is a lopsided relationship in several ways.  Beyond the age difference, there is a maturity difference, an income difference, and a difference in what each one wants.  The married man still loves his husband and his children and wants to stay in that relationship.  His husband has no concerns if that is how it works out.  But that raises many questions which is what the book is really about.  How can a polyamorous relationship work over time?  Can the boyfriend accept being a part of one?  Will the children and the husband accept the boyfriend.  The book actually begins when the boyfriend has ended the relationship as it has currently existed (outside of the family relationship).  The protagonist is suffering from heartache.  He's also ADHD, has been seeing two therapists at the same time over several years, is a Black Latino in a mixed racial marriage/family which is already a problem within society in general, and is worried about how difficult it will be for society to understand an accept a polyamorous family.  He is writing unsent emails to the boyfriend as a way of trying to work through his heartache, of trying to figure out if he will get over it, of analyzing the details of the relationship over time, of trying to figure out how to get the boyfriend back, and of trying to figure out if he can make the polyamorous relationship work out if he can get to the boyfriend to agree to try it.  His mind is so "unique" that the book is often humorous while his ADHD inflexibility is often frustrating.  I don't consider it to be a great book, but it is a good enough book.  I have it 3 1/2 stars out of 5.  

Note:  The authors early book, The Town of Babylon which I have also read, is a better book in my opinion.  

All That Life Can Afford by Emily Everett

Saturday, Mar. 21, 2026--San Antonio

All That Life Can Afford by Emily Everett was on a list of best books of last year.  I isn't a great book, but it is a book that is pleasurable to read.  It is the story of a young lady who grew up in a very poor family but was very intelligent and happened to live in the hometown of Smith College where she was admitted on a full scholarship.  The book follows her to London where she has been admitted, again on scholarship, to a university to work on a master's degree in literature.  Beyond that, it is very much like a romance novel (except for not having any sexual liaison details) as she ends up dating the wrong guy while you keep hoping she will realize that she has made an error.  It also includes details of how she allows herself to become involved in living a high society life which she cannot afford.  The book is full of tense moments caused by poor decisions.  And like most romance novels (other than the withheld details of sex encounters that has already been mentioned), she ends up with the right guy in the end (but the reader knows this is going to happen 10% of the way into the novel, so it isn't really a spoiler to say so).  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico

Tuesday, Mar. 17, 2026--San Antonio

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico is a short novel that was shortlisted for the Booker International Price (for books translated into English).  It's different.  Approximately the first 10% of the book is describing an apartment in detail--the number of rooms, the walls, the doors, the floors, the furniture, the decor, the plants, the choice of kitchenware (plates, knives, etc.), the choice of bedspreads and upholstery (color, fabric, and design), the plants, the views from the windows of each room, etc.  But that detail tells a lot about the protagonists who are then introduced.  They are a young couple from Italy who are IT designers (of web pages in detail--font, colors, photos, layouts, etc.) and have moved into this apartment in the former eastern part of Berlin because it is the trendy, inexpensive, and most exciting spot in Europe where they can live a cosmopolitan life while working by contract remotely.  The novel starts in the 90s and moves forward to the present.  At first, they are living quite well on what they make because they are very good at their jobs and are always on top of the constant changes in IT trends in design and because they arrived in Berlin when it was cheap to get rent their rent controlled apartment.  They were living the kind of exciting life they imagined as being like it would be in New York City, but even more exciting and cheaper.  They made friends among expats who came from all parts of the world for the same reason they came.  They were exploring the city on a daily basis while only having to work a few hours to afford it all.  And as time passed, they started noticing things:  All the newcomers like them were causing the neighborhood to change.  Quaint, inexpensive shops, bars, restaurants were disappearing.  Buildings were being remodeled/enlarged in the same way to create the "new look" they had created for themselves.  These changes made prices go up.  The small galleries they had found exciting with opening parties with free drinks and snacks were being replaced in the same way--becoming more professional, more expensive, and more sterile in appearances.  The couple began to notice that their budget was getting tighter over time.  The increased competition of IT designers meant that they couldn't raise the rates for their work, so the increase in the costs of everything except for their rent meant that they had to work more hours for more clients which gave them less time to enjoy the city and their friends.  They were becoming disillusioned with how their lives in Berlin had changed, and they started wondering if there were places where they could rediscover life as it had been--inexpensive in an exciting place attracting young international expats.  Since they could keep their apartment in Berlin and even make money off it by subletting it for more than their rent, they tried Lisbon and discovered drawbacks there.  They tried Sicily, but it was worse.  They returned to Berlin only to find that it had continued to gentrify and to get more expensive and that most of their international friends' lives had changed; they had started families which changed their lifestyle or had returned to their homes.  The atmosphere they missed from the early days of the wall coming down in Berlin and it becoming an inexpensive magnet city for creatives from around the world just didn't exist anymore.  The novel continues as they return home after inheriting a farm from an uncle.  There, they work to create their own version of a good life among international expats by using the buildings on the farm to recreate a co-working space and several apartments that could be rented.  Of course, when one has just happened to find themselves in a unique time and situation, its natural to hope to create the excitement of that experience  over and over again, but it is not typically possible.  There comes a time to have to realize and accept how fortunate they were to have had that experience in the first place.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

Thursday, Mar. 12, 2026--San Antonio

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai is a different kind of "who done it" novel.   It centers around a murder that took place toward the end of the senior year at a private prep school--not an ultra exclusive one, but one exclusive enough to attract students from near and far.  It centers around a student who had been there on scholarship, was somewhat reclusive while there (while keeping watch on everything happening), and a couple of decades later is still bothered by the fact that she thinks the wrong person (the black janitor) was found guilty for committing the murder.  She is now a podcaster and is returning to the school to teach two 2-week long mini-courses during the winter break for students staying on campus.  Two of her students decide to investigate that murder as their class podcast project and the book is structured around her writing to her former music teacher who she suspects was the actual murderer.  In writing to him, she goes through all of the other potential suspects one at a time outlining how it could have gone if they were the murderer while reaching a point where she explains why it doesn't seem likely that it could have been each of them--building up to the point when she goes through why she thinks he was the one.  Former classmates become involved through the students' research process, and other podcasters who have already been interested in the past become involved further.  But the book itself is as much about the problems of modern society as it is about finding the real murderer.  It is about the cancel culture that exists where people are always ready to immediately jump to conclusions and criticize others to the point that they lose jobs and are hounded by those who have turned against them.  It's about the tendency to believe that a minority member is likely the criminal and to build a case against them without thoroughly investigating the crime.  It's about friends protecting friends by agreeing to tell the same story so that no one of them has to suffer what they consider to be undue suspicion.  It's about how what is known and suspected can lead to conclusions that may be partially right but not completely right.  I read the book because a reviewer from the NY Times said that it was recommended to her and she became so wrapped up in the story that she finished the whole book within one day.  I enjoyed it, too.  I gave if 4 stars out of 5.

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

Friday, Mar. 6, 2026--San Antonio

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was named a top book of the year by many notable publications.  It's a fascinating novel--different from most I have read recently.  The central character (unnamed) is a woman who grew up in a desolate part of Australia, left to become and environmentalist and conservationist, and has become disillusioned by the failures to preserve all aspects of life and the planet itself.  In the first few pages, she is returning home after 30 years away to visit her parents' graves.  While there, she ends up spending a few days of respite in a cabin at a monastery which has a church (not a chapel, because it was consecrated as a church in the past) and has only a few nuns living there (no priest).  It's a place for a quiet (not a silent) retreat.  Meals are basic and the nuns work to maintain the place while raising a garden and some animals.  Plus, the nuns have multiple services a day in the church (before breakfast, after breakfast, midday, and vespers in the evening) at which attendance is allowed.  They are the only things for a visitor "to do" other than reading, sleeping or wandering.  At the beginning, she even avoids sharing mealtime with the nuns; she just takes products from the pantry that she can use to feed herself in her room.  At the end of her 5 days, she heads back to Sydney.  But in the next chapter, a few years have passed, she has left her husband, she has left your job in conservation, and she is back at the monastery and is a permanent resident living and working with the nuns.  The rest of the novel is almost like a memoir.   She recalls friends from school and what they were like, her mother and father and what they were like, one student in particular who was aggressive and unapologetic, etc., while interacting with the nuns and with a former male classmate who volunteers regularly to assist the nuns when needed.  She never develops an interest in leaving the place even when the woman who was the aggressive, apologetic student returns as a nun bringing back the bones of a former nun who, years ago, left the monastery to run an assistance program in Asia and then disappeared.  Instead, her mind continues contemplating the past and dealing with the frustrations that she has with the returned nun and even occasionally with the nuns she lives with.  There is no "end to the story" other than the she is still there when the nun, who brought the bones at the beginning of COVID and has had to remain for about 2 years waiting for flights resume, finally can depart.  The unnamed central character doesn't.  She seems destined to be there for the rest of her life.  I gave the book a rating of 4 stars out of 5.